In the meantime the hours had gone by, and the afternoon was drawing
towards evening, and the grown people in the Red House, the father
and the mother of the Four, and Pavlo's uncle, who had arrived that
morning and was to leave the next day, had been getting very anxious;
for there was no sign of the children, though they had promised to
be home early. And the Four got into plenty of mischief, but they
kept their promises.
So the mother of the Four walked from one window to another and
could not keep still, and Kyria Penelope wrung her hands and shook
her head, and Deko rushed about after them; whining and yelping and
limping on his bad foot, till they shut him up in a room upstairs,
and he had to stay there; and Athanasia the cook stationed herself
at the gate near the sea to watch for the children, and Anneza the
serving maid tore up through the pines to the top gate to see if they
were in sight on the hill.
The doctor and the master of the Red House were pacing nervously up
and down the terrace.
Suddenly the latter sent up a big shout.
"There they are!"
Everyone, from the mother of the Four to Yanni the boatman, rushed
down to the little landing stage.
"They are in that," said the master of the house, pointing to a
puffing little steam launch which was fast approaching. "I heard
their voices shouting, and saw one of the girls' frocks, but how the
little rascals got there is beyond me. I only hope they have not been
in any mischief."
The steam launch had stopped alongside, and he caught sight of a
bandaged head.
"... or in any danger!" he gasped.
When everyone had landed, Iason looking very pale under his white
bandage but walking without help, there was at first such confusion,
so many speaking all together and such a tangle of officers and
children and dogs, that it was very difficult for the grown-ups
to get any clear idea of what had occurred. But the mother of the
Four gathered at last that something out of the common had certainly
happened, that the children had certainly been in some peril, and that
the officers had rescued them and brought them home. So she tried,
though her voice shook a little, to thank the Chief.
"You must not thank us," said the gray-haired admiral standing cap
in hand, before her. "We did nothing but arrive at a lucky moment,
and bring the children home. It is another you must thank, another
who deserves your deepest gratitude; one who by his presence of mind
and coolness saved them all in a moment of great danger, ... of very
real danger. This is the boy!" he said, putting his hand on Pavlo's
shoulder. "This is a real Zamana, who when he grows up will be an
honor to his glorious name! And in the meantime I for one, am proud
to know him!"
Oh, how they shouted for him when they heard it all! And while the
mother of the Four was holding him very tight to her, and while the
master of the house and Pavlo's uncle were shaking each other's hand
as though they would never stop, Deko, who had been set free, limped
nimbly down all the steps, and leaped upon Chryseis, and licked her
hands, and whined for joy, and caught hold of her skirt and shook it
so hard that he tore it.
But he was forgiven that time.
And joy followed for Pavlo as well as glory, for though his uncle
was obliged to leave for Athens the next day, no one in the Red House
felt as if Pavlo could be spared. So his uncle was persuaded to leave
him behind; to leave him indefinitely, till it should be autumn,
and school time, and everyone returned to town.
So it came to pass, that when the doctor was being rowed across the
bay the next morning, in the boat that was taking him to the steamer,
the Four and Pavlo stood all together on the little landing stage
and waved good-by to him.
They waved and waved, till he was a speck in the blue distance, and
then they turned and ran with cries and whoops of joy, back into the
pine woods, back to the sea, back to the hillside, back for a whole
long summer to all the manifold delights of the Red House on the Hill.